Thursday, February 23, 2006

Axing of Ganguly, is it right?

The Men in blue have stuck excellent form in the One day format.
Just imagine if Ganguly walks out to open the innings with Sachin at this moment, Dravid coming at No.3 and Shewag coming at No.4 which he also prefers because the ball would have gone a bit old. Shewag will also have a nice time clobbering the spinners around the park. With Yuvaraj and Raina coming at 5 and 6, the batting looks quite impressive. Then we have the versatile Pathan and swashbuckling man from Jharkhand, both having the ability to bat at any position, the team will be unstoppable. When it comes to tests, Dada has not been a major force even at his prime and hence I would take Yuvaraj or Raina and groom them for future as the three musketeers Dravid, Sachin and Laxman will retire at almost the same time, 3 or 4 years from now. This is what my heart loves to do.

The question is does my brain also say Ganguly must be selected?

The answer is a clear no.

Ganguly is better than Sachin in offside, he is the most aggressive captain India had ever had. He changed the face of Indian cricket. I agree with all these.

I am not saying Ganguly must be out of the game because he is out of form. It is because he didn’t have fitness and didn’t care to improve it. He began to think as a captain, he is entitled for an automatic selection into the team irrespective of his form and fitness.

He thought that he is bigger than the game.

Be it be Sir Don Bradman, Vivan Richards, Courtney Walsh, Sachin Tendulkar, Imran Khan, anybody, anybody,

Nobody is ever greater than game.

Ganguly thought the otherwise, that’s why I want him out.

It might have been due to the rapport he had with Jagamohan Dalmiya which made him believe that he will be in the team at any cost or the adulation Indian media and public gave to him which may have gone to his head and bought him down.

I am also a die hard fan of Ganguly; I would love to watch Dada coming down the track to loft a spinner into the stands, play a cover drive which pierces a packed off-side field.
But, still he should not be there in the team; this must serve a lesson to him, a lesson to all, a lesson that nobody is greater than the game.

For those who pity that talent of Ganguly is being wasted, let me remind you of one thing. Ganguly may have backed many young players, but he backed some to a very large extent despite their poor form for a prolonged period. Few players also become over confident and complacent since their place in team was assured as long as Dada was at helm, that complacency in them led to the Indian cricket team’s downfall. Also many a talent like Hemang Badani, Wasim Jaffer was wasted because for a simple reason that Dada didn’t like them, so don’t feel sorry for the prince of Calcutta. He is reaping the fruits of his own labor.

The story of Ganguly reminds me of Julius Caesar.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a BIT...
IN first para...include NAME : DHONI too!!!(hope u have mentioned as swashbuckling man from Jharkand, thats fine BUt!!!!!!!)
intha comment chumma...Ok...
-Bala VS

Anonymous said...

Ganguly is better than sachin in offside ya we all accept that. But just think the play ground comprises of two sides off side and leg side. Imagine bowler like Shoaib bowling a bouncer to Dada in the leg side. Not only shoaib all the bowlers now know the weakness of Ganguly.Ganguly too never thought of improving his play. Thats the reason he should be out of the team i personally think.

- Sathyan
Bangalore

Anonymous said...

hey the blog is good. Did u read the news today ? bush demoting india on nuclear treaty. Why don't u write a blog about India on Nuclear Age.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm I should appreciate the author , he has written the article convincingly . Many things even I do agree Ganguly has been at fault as quoted but according to me he has learnt his lesson, and deserves the place in the squad on due merit. He is still capable of hitting any damn attack , not just hitting demolishing the attack. His capability to take the game away with sheer stroke play has been on display against the best.

On your example about how will he deal with shoaib bowling short pitch, I have played enough cricket that too at a competitive level , when we face a situation like this we goto nets and sort it out. He could have done this before accepted but he was thinking only as a captain that’s where he went wrong . In Pakistan tour he did handle short balls so I do believe he is capable of dealing with that.

My heart and even my mind says once he gets one decent score he will be unstoppable again. But the catch here is I seriously doubt if he will get another chance , since the selectors now want to grab headlines and get the title that they are changing and they are this and that. Its more a gimmick by them which even literates like us fail to recognize. There is lot lot more to Ganguly being dropped than just his poor form or his fitness.

Anonymous said...

in the last post i forgot to put my name--

vinod :)

Anonymous said...

u said a lot about ganguly.. but y agarkar is still in the team -- inak